So after all of the Atomic Bomb stuff, we took a long train down to a city called Kure. It is in the Hiroshima area, and it was a vital boatyard during WWII. You may have heard of the battleship Yamato during WWII. This is where it was build. They had a museum to accompany it.
Also: A submarine.
They meant to put it there (I think). It housed the Japan Self Defense Force Maritime Museum. The museum showed all the activities of the JSDF with minesweeping and submarine activities.
That little guy is a floater that they troll behind a boat and wait for a mine to blow it up. Many mines are magnetically activated, so the JSDF uses giant wooden boats. Interesting eh?
This part of the museum was modeled after the top of a boat.
Know you boat...or else.
They had cutaways of what it is like to live in a submarine. It would be terrible.
All these switches are just to run the one espresso machine.
Giant cranes over the harbors. We also got to go inside the submarine. I knocked my head at least 5 times in the 4 minute tour> They let you look through the periscope and check out what was going on outside.
The Yamato museum had a 1/10 scale of the battleship. It was SUPER cool. The Yamato was the most feared and famous battleship of the entire Japanese Navy during WWII. It was a symbol of the Japanese power in the Pacific.
The model was huge, but the real ship was (obviously) bigger.
They had an exhibition of all the different types of torpedoes launched by submarines in WWII.
They also had the outlines on the ground showing how big those things were.
A smaller submarine.
Mitsubishi Zero fighter. So awesome! The fighter crashed into a shallow lake during training, but was mostly intact. They restored it and now it is on display.
These were awesome planes that were especially vicious when launched from aircraft carriers.
The kamikazi submarine. They would put a guy in it and launch him toward an enemy boat. Underwater kamikazi.
A display of the Zero and the motor.
A small scale cross-section of the Zero.
The guns recovered from downed Zeros.
Ammunition and other parts.
Another look at the sub.
A cross section of the inside of one of the small submarines.
An overhead view of the Yamato Model. The Yamato survived the war despite being seriously damaged toward the end. Ultimately, the crew was ordered on a suicide mission to Okinawa. The museum contained letters that the officers and crew wrote to their families before going off to die. The ship was sunk with the crew.
After that, we got on our last bus back to Tokyo. We boarded the bus at 8 pm and rode it until 8:30 the next morning. It was...awful. Luckily the bus wasn't very crowded, so we each got two seats. After we got back to Tokyo, we traveled the 3 hours back to Kofu, and the hour back home. I have rarely been so happy to be home again. Total, it was about a 1,000 mile journey over 4 days. Fun and frantic.
So after getting on another overnight bus to Hiroshima (8.5 hours) we got in at about 6:30am. Early in the morning with nothing to do for the next hour and a half until things open. You can disparage McDonald's all you want, but I will sing their praises forever. They have late and early hours, the food is cheap, and they let you sit down for free. Happy meal indeed. First we headed out to an island in Hiroshima Bay that is considered one of the top 3 most sacred Shinto shrines in Japan. We took a ferry out to it and it cost...you guessed it...500 yen.
The island is famous for its deer (as pictured) and for the Tori gate in the water. When the tide is really high, it looks like it is floating out in the water. It always looks like it is floating, but more when the tide is high. It was cold! I didn't think snow could coincide with ocean, but it did here...
Looking at the shrine on the island.
5 story pagoda with snow in the background if you look closely. It was bizarre, snow and sunshine.
Tour of the island (kind of)
Deer eating kelp (or drinking seawater, I can't be sure).
Walking on the promenade to the shrine.
Hopefully you can see the snow in these two videos.
I can't figure out how to make it not sideways.
Floating Tori
This island was more than a little obsessed with rice scoopers. Really obsessed. They were everywhere for lots of money! I think they probably used them with the shrines somehow. This one is probably the largest in the world. It was giant!
Next we went downtown to the A-bomb dome. This was the real purpose of coming to Hiroshima. The epicenter of the bomb was near this building. It detonated high above in the sky for maximum effectiveness and devastation to the target. This building was one of only a few that were left standing. The building has remained like this ever since it happened as a memorial.
Another view looking from the bridge that was the intended target of the bomb.
The river splits into two different courses leaving a peninsula that used to be a thriving district. Since the bomb, it is now the peace gardens and the park.
The whole park is strewn with memorials for different people and groups. This is the peace bell that you can ring in hope for peace.
Brad rang the bell.
One of the more famous memorials is the children's peace memorial. It has a bell in the middle that is made with a brass paper crane. Children from all over the world make thousands of origami cranes and send them in hope for peace. The tradition was started in memory of a girl named Sadako:
Sadako was two years old when she was exposed to the A-bomb. She had no apparent injuries and grew into a strong and healthy girl. However, nine years later in the fall when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school (1954), she suddenly developed signs of an illness. In February the following year she was diagnosed with leukemia and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital. Believing that folding paper cranes would help her recover, she kept folding them to the end, but on October 25, 1955, after an eight-month struggle with the disease, she passed away.
Artwork done entirely with tiny folded cranes.
They tie the cranes into long strings and put them on display.
More cranes.
This mound is a memorial to those that died during the blast near the epicenter. Thousands of bodies were around with no real way to identify them, and no where to bury them. They took the ashes of the cremated remains and made this mound as a resting place. It is commemorated every year.
I found this memorial to be very interesting. Japan has often been accused of omitting parts of history that does not portray it in a positive light. Possibly the most famous of these is the issue of Korean 'Comfort Women' who were sex slaves of the Japanese army during WWII. Japan still hasn't come to a resolution on that, and they have been consistently criticized for omitting the issue, and the Rape of Nanking, from school textbooks. That is all I will say on those matters. This memorial took a long time to accomplish and to recognize as many as 20,000 to 30,000 foreign workers (primarily Korean) who were working in Hiroshima and perished in the blast (the plaques indicated that most had been taken against their will to be workers). This turtle is the monument for those Korean workers.
The main monument is here. The box underneath the archway contains a register of all the names of those whose lives were damaged by the blast. If you look through it, you can see the eternal flame and the A-bomb dome.
This memorial marks the entrance to the Memorial Hall. The sculpture is of a clock with the hands on 8:15 (the time the bomb dropped). Water is constantly flowing from the piece in memory of all those who died desperate for a drink. The ground around the pond is covered with pieces of tiles and buildings that survived the blast.
I wish I had pictures of the next parts, but I don't have many as they prohibited photos. The Memorial Hall moved in a counterclockwise motion to a circular room with another memorial with running water and a 360 degree panorama mosaic of the devastation left and the neighborhoods destroyed. Near the end of the memorial, there was an interactive display of the journals and accounts of the survivors. It is hard to capture in words the true horror of what it was like. I would encourage you to look up the accounts of the survivors, though it is quite sobering.
The next exhibit was the National Museum. The museum was divided primarily into two 3 parts: The history, the horrors and the future. The first section talked about the history of Hiroshima, the military significance and why it was targeted. This was all essentially straightforward stuff.
The horrors shared stories of survivors, pictures, artifacts and some very graphic exhibits. Flesh melting off of bodies, fingernails left over, shredded clothing and graphic pictures of the burns that came with the heat from the blast. In my mind, there is no question about the terror and awful, awesome power of those bombs.
This is a picture of the devastation 3 days after the bomb was dropped.
The last exhibit, the future, made up nearly half of the entire tour. I was initially somewhat skeptical of what would be said and how the information would be presented. Along with the information presented in a matter-of-fact tone about the bombings, there was a significant amount of now-declassified Allied documents talking about using the bomb. The papers were clearly authentic, but they were highlighted in a very damning tone about the use of the bomb. The rest of the tour discussed in length the damages of nuclear weapons on the environment and people. They had a giant globe that outlined which countries had the most nuclear weapons and called for the dismantling of the world's nuclear arsenal. All in all, it felt rather preachy about nuclear arms (though I suppose they have some right to say something on the matter). I believe that they handled it rather well and did not pull any punches when it came to acknowledging fault. It was generally very matter-of-fact.
Leaving the museum.
A memorial for children who perished in the attack.
A last view of the A-bomb Dome. It is an incredible memorial, and very worth seeing. You can notice in the picture that the metal framework of the dome is bent inward from the shock. You can see where the epicenter of the blast was by looking at the way the metal is bent.
In summary, I feel I understand more fully the horrors of war, and especially of nuclear weapons. I believe that (nearly) all people wish for a nuke-free world and they are right to. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were small bombs by comparison, but the devastation was still incredible. Here is to a nuclear-free world.
On to day 2! We spent a sweet night in a hostel with 8 other dudes and got ready for our second day in Kyoto. Day 2 was Christmas Eve for us.
Outside of Noji Castle. Noji is a famous castle that is located in the center of Kyoto. It served as a fortress for the shogunate for a long time, although they very rarely visited it.
Another view of the main entryway. If you think moats are cool, be jealous of this castle which has 2 moats!
A view of the main gate from the inside.
There is a guardhouse on the inside where the samurai would hang out and wait for bad people to fight.
A view of the castle grounds. Double moat glory!
Entering the main grounds to the palace.
This way leads to the gardens.
Spot the white person!
Gold leaf covering the entryway.
The main palace. According to the audio guide, there is something very interesting and different about the construction and manner of the arches and how they are...so...take note.
2 bells. Just hanging (pun intended).
A view of the gardens. The palaces were more about the gardens than the palace. Unfortunately, they allowed no pictures inside the palace. It was a lot of rooms with really ornately painted walls. The sliding doors were all covered in gold and other decorations. Being a Japanese palace, the floors are just tatami mats that would go up according to people's rank. The shogun would sit on the highest platform and had the highest ceiling above him.
The garden was really beautiful.
You can see the waterfall in the background and the neat rocks.
I really love Japanese trees, the ones that are in gardens are always pruned to perfection. They have usually been maintained for hundreds of years.
Moat number 2.
Moat-y
Another palace that we weren't allowed to go into.
Japanese stone lantern.
A guardhouse in the corner of the upper palace looks out over the top palace and the city of Kyoto up on the ridge.
Another view.
The entryway to the Golden Temple/Pavilion/Shrine. The Golden Pavilion is one of the top attractions in Japan for good reason.
You could pay 500 yen to ring this bell.
...I don't really know what this is. A Japanese building of some importance I would believe.
Golden Pavilion and 2 brothers. This picture was taken by a nice Israeli couple we ended up talking to for about 20 minutes. They were super nice and we swapped stories about our respective trips. They actually had stayed in our same hostel the night before we did.
The pavilion is covered on the outside and some of the inside with gold leaf. The 3 floors represent 3 different styles of construction in the period.
It really is amazing to see just hanging out in the middle of a giant garden with a big pond.
Waterfalls all around.
All that white stuff you can see is coins taht people try to throw into a bowl in front of the budda. That's how they get ya! I threw in a few 1 yen pieces. I was closer than Brad...
Another pond with a pagoda on an island.
I really liked this picture, it was nice to catch because it had been raining before I took it.
On the way out.
At the zen garden shrine, there is a smaller shrine on an island that we visited.
You can see the bridge heading out to the zen garden.
Budda is watching.
500 yen to see the zen rock garden. Impressive right? (this isn't the real garden)
Outside the tea house, there is a spring for purification. I don't know the words in Japanese, but I thought the meaning was quite good. "I learn only to be contented." This saying is important to Shinto belief that learning is necessary to be content in life.
This is the zen garden! Apparently, this is one of Japan's most important locations. It is renowned for its beauty, tranquility and design. The rocks have been here for about 500 years. Promptly after taking this video, I dropped my camera down on the no go area that they said not to go on. I may have soiled it with my big American feet...As we left, I made the comment that we are celebrating a garden with some rocks that have been arranged for 500 years, but we walk by rocks that have been arranged (like mountains) for tens of thousands of years.
It is a cool garden, don't get me wrong, but I don't know what all the zen fuss is about. Maybe I have reached inner peace already. I am pretty good at saying 'ohm.'
I walked by this and thought it looked like a communications beacon for aliens. After reading the plaque, I found out that it isn't. This is a monument for veterans of WW2 I think.
Looking toward the rock garden house.
The front pond with the shrine. You can see those big pieces of wood that look like chopsticks holding up that tree. Near shrines and temples, this is common. They support up the trees with these pieces of wood. The irony is not lost on me that they would cut down one tree to support another tree.
I wish that we had eaten here. So much is going on with the name of this place...
You can see by the garbage that Japan is finally making the switch away from VHS.
More Engrish "A part of the sales is contributed as the Nijo Castle mouthful lord of a castle." Up until castle, it kind of makes sense. I don't know what "mouthful lord of a castle is referring to...
BURGER KING! I have never visited Burger King in Japan before. It is awesome though!
BK Lounge to a whole new level.
We went walking around on Christmas Eve in the geisha district of Kyoto. They had some very pretty buildings around. I like this one because it reminds me of the Alamo.
Looking down the main drag.
You can see that it says BLDG, but I was hoping that it was BLOG. I wanted to use it on my homepage, but I was wrong.
A picture of Brad taking a picture of our Christmas chicken!
Lots of lanterns...
Legitimate genuine bonafied Christmas chicken in Japan. A true tradition!
A lot like Fremont Street in Vegas...but not as sad.
I picked up some nice souvenirs in this mall.
Japan working on moving toward CD's.
You would be curious about guns in Japan, these are replica guns that look exactly like the real thing, but don't work. The catch is that they are the same price, and in some case more expensive, than the same guns in America. What a country!
The main theatre on the corner entrance into the geisha district.
For Christmas Day, we went to Nara! Pictures are forthcoming tomorrow!
